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Video 12: Prohibitionist law enforcement drug policies negatively impact development and the environment

Course video 39 of 60

Welcome to Module 4 which looks at questioning prohibition-based policies. In this Module, you will discover that most drug policies in the world are based on prohibition law enforcement and criminalization of drug use ; and see that such policies have a number of negative consequences on people’s health as well as on their human rights. This Module will also look at law enforcement more closely and reveal how it can cooperate to improve health. You will learn about the human rights framework and the drug control framework and see what human rights violations, stemming from the implementation of prohibitionist drug policies, look like around the world. Finally, you will also see that drug policies are connected to development and the environment, most often not in a good way, with prohibition fueling violence, crime and corruption and impeding development. By the end of this Module you will be able to: • Evaluate the extent to which prohibition-based policies have succeeded or failed in reducing drug production, trafficking and consumption; • Describe the negative impacts of prohibition-based policies on health, human rights and development; • Recall how prohibition-based policies fuel organized crime and trafficking. We hope this week will provide you with valuable insight into the reality of prohibitionist drug policies, for people in communities all over the world ; and help you see what have been the consequences of these policies, in terms of their impact on human rights, health and development. We also hope you enjoy the essential reading and optional additional resources we have prepared for you. Best wishes,The Drugs, Drug Use, Drug Policy and Health team

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health

Университет Женевы

This MOOC is the first of its kind, since it addresses critical issues related to drugs from a multidisciplinary, health and human rights-based approach. Throughout the course you will cover a range of questions including what are drugs and why they controlled? What are the benefits and harms of taking drugs? How public health policies can address drug use? You will also learn about the intricacies of the international drug control framework and the negative consequences of widespread prohibitionist drug policies around the world. Finally, you will examine ways of furthering drug policy reform. The topics will be presented by over 40 speakers from scientific, academic and institutional backgrounds, spokespersons of civil society as well as people who use drugs presenting their views. By the end of the course you will have: - a strong understanding of the major health issues related to drug use and drug policy; - a clear vision of why drug policy is debated today; - and, if you so wish, you will be equipped to engage in the drug policy reform movement at your local or regional level.

Просмотреть программу курса

Преподаватели

Michel Kazatchkine
Senior Fellow
Barbara Broers
Professor (in Addiction Medicine)
Jennifer Hasselgard-Rowe
Researcher and Lecturer
Aymeric Reyre
Senior Lecturer

Текст видео

This video looks at how prohibitionist law enforcement drug policies

negatively impact development and the environment.

And we have the pleasure of talking to Diego García-Devis

from the Open Society Foundations in New York.

Hello Diego

Hello Jennifer

Could you kindly just introduce yourself please.

My name is Diego García and I work within the drug policy program

of the Open Society Foundations, where we try to reform the regulatory

frameworks of drug policy which we see as harmful to susceptible people.

What effect do prohibitionist policies have on the development and

the livelihood of populations?

The first thing you need to take into account Jennifer is the fact that

drug policies and regulatory frameworks which regulate the production and supply

of drugs are immediately addressed from a wrong perspective, the perspective

of criminal law, meaning that they address a phenomenon which is seen as social,

of health, of economic development, under a criminal perspective while

it should be our last resort to tackle these phenomenons.

We are putting in the hands of security, of the police and often of the army

the responsibility to deal with these phenomenon which are linked

to poverty, to social marginalisation.

The prohibitionist policy has had direct effects on susceptible populations,

on those that we consider as the most vulnerable link in the drug production chain

whether it is producers or users.

If we take the example of Latin America, coca producers are the poorest farmers.

They live in places where, for instance, multidimensional poverty reaches 90%:

coca growing is the only way to receive or access a salary.

If, for instance, we think about women who are heads of family, they meet difficulties

in entering the labour market. It is mostly them who carry drugs:

we call them mules because they carry drugs inside their body.

They are the ones incarcerated.

If we now take a look at the more problematic population of drug users

who live in the street, these are populations coming from poor settings

in cities or urban areas.

In other words, prohibition stopped us accessing social inclusion programs,

addressing in a comprehensive manner poverty issues, and it gave the priority

to the use of strength and militarisation as if it was the only way to address these issues.

In what ways do prohibitionist drug policies negatively impact the environment?

What is happening with environment is similar to what is happening with poverty,

in so far as it is the police and the army who deal with these issues.

We have seen how, in the coca or poppy eradication process for instance, illicit

crops move to protected areas or deeper forested areas which lead to deforestation

and wildlife movements.

Each time there is an eradication act, we observe that the agricultural

frontier moves and spreads.

We call this phenomenon the "balloon effect": if we put pressure on a community

growing coca or poppy this community will move to a deeper forested area,

deforest this area and plant coca or poppy.

With eradication process using glyphosate, water sources are being

contaminated but also the grounds and the endemic wildlife of these areas is affected.

Here is for eradication.

But, there is one element which does not appear in the media and it is not quite

clear in the way trafficking is addressed to.

For instance, traffickers hide their landing strips in forest areas,

in the most remote areas, which induce a deforestation in regions which should

be protected.

This leads, and we mainly saw that in Central America, to another type of

illicit economy which takes benefits from the existence of these landing strips

to deal in wood, animals and to expand mining.

We can then observe a chain of relationships between cocaine production

in Latin America for instance and other illicit economies such as illegal

gold mining or wood and animal trading.

Thank you for all of your contribution and points that are really important

to take into consideration when looking at prohibitionist drug policies

Thank you Jennifer.

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